The diaspora of Jesters

It’s soon going to be the end of an era at the Dark Satanic Mill. The complaints department, which was Jester’s home at work for something like 7 years, is moving to the Head Office in the New Year. This is due to a restructure and streamlining of the business and is nothing to do with the current financial crisis. “Tell me another one!” I hear you all shout and “This one’s got bells on!” Heckling aside, I have no reason at present to disbelieve the party line. There are to be a few redundancies from other affected departments but most of the people whose jobs are going south will be found jobs elsewhere within the business operation in this benighted town.

Not that it affects this particular jester very much. My appetite for complaints has been seriously reduced in the past couple of years and last month, I moved away from them completely and am now experiencing a job satisfaction I haven’t felt for about 2½ years. Don’t get me wrong. This was not a career move. I was dealing with complaints in a sort of outpost of a sister company that was moved back to its main office and I was moved into another department. I was given a choice of three or four departments and chose this as the lesser of the various evils. However, it turned out to be quite a good choice and I’m quite enjoying the new job. I don’t know if the job satisfaction will last beyond the honeymoon period but I live in hope.

So the complaints department is going to another office too. I think this will come as a blow for a few of my former colleagues. The job was demanding but there was a reasonable amount of flexibility about the hours they worked. This flexibility will now disappear and they will be offered a range of shifts for the various departments to which they are relocated, which will probably not suit. Whole days off during the week, for instance, will not be forthcoming. They will be expected to work weekends. Maybe just one day every three weeks, like I do, but they will have to do it.

They will have to get used to the “Calls queuing!” environment and the questioning of every move they make. These people have had a degree of autonomy that is not seen elsewhere within the business and they are going to have to get used to it disappearing completely. There is also the possibility that there may be some resentment of them as well. They will be paid more than their new colleagues for doing the same job and apparently, there have already been some rumblings about that in the call centre.

I’ve been lucky. I have had no difficulty adjusting to my new working environment but, unlike them, I was heartily sick of complaints and ready for a change. Most of my former colleagues love the job. The new environment will prove a bitter pill to swallow, I suspect. My new colleagues do not seem to resent my but then I’m not particularly well known on my new department and they do not know that there is anything to resent. I am not confident my former colleagues will have the same experience but I sincerely hope so.